John Lewis Dyer

John Lewis Dyer (1812-1901) was a Methodist circuit rider who became known as "The Snowshoe Itinerant" for his preaching in the Colorado area.

Biography

Dyer was born in Franklin County, Ohio, spending most his early years in Illinois. He had little formal education and in 1833, married Harriet Foster, moving his family to Wisconsin to work in the lead mines. Harriet died when she was 35, leaving Dyer a widow with their five children. After their mother-named infant daughter Harriet died soon after, Dyer chose to become a Methodist minister. He became a circuit rider, riding from town to town as he was needed for funerals, sermons, and weddings.

Dyer's circuit in Wisconsin and Minnesota covered a large area, and required travel through winter storms and extensive snow. Norwegian immigrants in Minnesota taught Dyer how to make skis to traverse the snow more efficiently. Dyer hiked through blizzards and dealt with wild animals to reach remote mining towns, preaching in saloons, tents and on street corners. At times, miners put gold dust in the offering plate, as most were too poor to give actual cash.

A new challenge faced Dyer in Colorado mining towns. The rough-and-tumble residents spent a much of their free time drinking and gambling in saloons. Thus Dyer felt his preaching was sorely needed. In many towns he set up churches, including one in Breckenridge that still holds services today: Dyer United Methodist Church. As he had once worked in mines, Dyer understood the hard lives of miners.

Wearing 10-foot "snowshoes" (really Norwegian skis), he would cross Mosquito Pass, which is high, leaving in the evening, so the snow was frozen and easier to cross. Atop Mosquito Pass are two memorials bearing his name. Dyer became quite well-known and was affectionately nicknamed "Father Dyer" despite the fact that Methodist ministers were not called "Father".

Father Dyer died in 1901 at the age of 89.

Legacy "Father" Dyer is one of the 16 founders of the state of Colorado, thus his likeness is depicted in a stained glass in the Colorado capitol dome, in Colorado State Capitol, in Denver. In 1977 he was one of the first inductees into the Colorado Ski & Snowboarding Museum Hall of Fame. Out of Leadville, the Father Dyer Postal Race was named for him, North American's highest ski mountaineering race,